British semiconductor designer Arm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:ARM) has made some lofty predictions to coincide with the Computex 2024 forum kicking off in Taipei today.
Speaking to Reuters, CEO Rene Haas said he expects the microchip designer to capture 50% of the Windows PC market in five years' time, supposedly at the sacrifice of incumbent leaders Intel and AMD.
"Arm's market share in Windows - I think, truly, in the next five years, it could be better than 50%," Haas boasted.
Arm chips are found in virtually every smartphone globally, but its designs have historically garnered limited appeal for PC makers around the world.
Counterpoint Research data shows that Arm’s CPU architecture was featured in 14% of PCs globally in the first quarter of 2023, before shrinking to less than 11% in the third quarter as Intel’s x86 chip sales proved buoyant.
But the rise of artificial intelligence has shaken up, among other things, the DNA of the PC market.
In May, Microsoft unveiled lofty plans to introduce a new category of PCs with AI applications at its core, supported by Microsoft’s close association with ChatGPT developer OpenAI.
Arm’s system-on-chip (SoC) architecture, which rose to prominence in the smartphone market, could provide the optimisation necessary to carry out Microsoft’s plans.
In a keynote speech at Computex on Monday, Haas said he expected 100 million Arm devices to be ready for artificial intelligence applications at the end of next year.
This PR drive has boosted Arm stock in Monday’s pre-market, with shares expected to open 2.5% higher in opening trades.